Russia’s envoy to the EU: Russian military was in Crimea with the consent from Kiev

“In March2014 Russian troopswerein Crimealegally,in accordancewith the bilateral agreementbetween Russiaand Ukraineof 1997,”the Russia’s permanent representativeto the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said in an interview with “Deutsche Welle”. The diplomat alsostressed that there were no operating Russian troopsin the Donbass.

According to Chizhov, in 2014Russia has deployedto Crimea9thousand troops.The top diplomat claims thatthe presence of Russianmilitaryon the territory of Crimeain March 2014was lawful.

“In accordancewith the bilateral agreementbetween Russiaand Ukraineof 1997, Russiawas granted the right tomilitary presencein Sevastopol,wherethe main baseof the Black Sea fleetof the Russian Federation was situated, as well as nomore than 25 thousand peopleof the personnel throughout the peninsula,”Chizhov said.The diplomat specified that atthe beginning of the crisis16thousand members of Russian armed forces troops were deployed on the Peninsula, andother 9thousand peoplewerequickly sent there by air.

Regarding the conflict inEastern Ukraine,Chizhovstressed that there were no operating Russian troops in the Donbass.In response to the claim of “Deutsche Welle”thatRussia’s policy can be explained by the unwillingness torecognizetheir own mistakes, Chizhov answered that “nobody’s perfect” and that “Russia also makes mistakes”. According to him, one of the mistakesof the country’s leadership of thepost-Soviet period was that “toolarge concessionsto Western partners were made”.

Concerning the claimsof some NATO countries that Russian military aircraft regularly conducted flights with off transponders, the diplomat noticed that “to fly with orwithout transponders turned offis a common practicefor the air forceof all countries“.